Incandescence
by orangeous
Summary: A virus infects nearly the entire population and Tadashi Hamada is a survivor of the aftermath: a man who has lost his wife, Aiko and his child. Yet after a friend gets involved with the rebels, he finds himself in a desperate race against time to deliver a boy to a destination in San Fransokyo. But the condition: With no strings attached. AU
1. Chapter 1

incandescent

ɪnkanˈdɛs(ə)nt/

_adjective_

adjective: **incandescent**

**1**.

emitting light as a result of being heated.

"plumes of incandescent liquid rock"

**2**.

full of strong emotion; passionate.

"she felt an incandescent love for life"

**PROLOGUE**

It had begun at two in the morning.

The television in Tadashi's room had turned on by itself, broadcasting entire communities running amok on the streets in their nightclothes. He shifted off the bed and drew the blinds quietly, careful not to wake his daughter up. House lamps lighted up one after another and people made mad scrambles for their vehicles, stuffing them with their most important belongings. Screams filled the air as people streamed past, carrying their belongings, children, pets, baggage or whatever they could manage in their arms.

A persistent sting of fear had already set in on Tadashi as well and he had simply swept up his sleeping daughter into his arms, grabbed his pistol and mobile before dashing out of the house into his own car.

He had heard about the rumors of the outbreak of a mutated virus that made people "crazed with an insatiable hunger", the vaccination hoax and now the widespread pandemonium, but he never expected it to hit them with such speed and force. There had been a long enough grace period for Tadashi to know who "they" were and to plan an escape, but he had chosen to ignore it.

Now there were consequences to face and they were merciless.


	2. Chapter 2

"…Unidentified crisis, we urge all citizens to remain calm and report to the safe zone up northwards immediately… Northwards… Evacuation Camp…"

Tadashi cursed under his breath as he repeatedly twisted the knob of the radio in frustration. There had been a moments where he contemplated stepping out of his car to make a mad dash for the Times Square, but it was an impossible idea with a child in tow. The decision to drive was not even an option, given the rampaging mass outside his car. He let out an agonized groan, as the radio did nothing more than gracing him with its occasional fizzle and buzz.

"Mama?"

"Working in the lab." Tadashi answered absent-mindedly, swiping at his phone. Hell, even the wretched mobile had a different plan, refusing to give him any signal as a time like this. "We're going to a new place… On a vacation." He would have to break the news to his daughter somehow, but he decided to deal with it later.

"Mama come?"

"She'll come too, Sara. Hopefully."

"Uncle Fred and W'sabi?"

"Yeah."

"Aunt Go go?"

Tadashi nodded slightly, caressing his daughter's cheek with a free hand. Sara took hold of his hand and nuzzled it affectionately, a small joy of parenthood.

Wasabi had been the first on his hotline. Tadashi knew he could trust the man to hold down the fort and watch out for Aiko. But that didn't negate the need to ensure they were safe. He dialed repeatedly and the monotonous drone of the dial tone filled the silence until a familiar voice finally answered. "Tadashi! You have _no idea_ how long I've been trying to get hold of you." The voice sounded irate, but Tadashi was just relieved to hear it. "You need-"

"Wasabi, are you with the gang?"

"Yeah, uh, we just got out of the building. I'll get Honey on the line."

"…Tadashi?"

His muscles relaxed at sound of Aiko's voice- it gave him all the reassurance he needed. His child had her mother and he had his wife. Alive.

"Give me a sec-" Tadashi turned the mobile on speaker mode.

"Tadashi? Are you there?"

"Mama!" Tadashi's heart sank as he watched Sara grab the mobile and place it on her cheek, holding it as if it were the most important thing in the world.

"Oh, Sara!" Aiko went silent for her few moments and her voice returned trembling. "You'll be a good girl, right?" At this Sara nodded her head solemnly. "Daddy's…going to bring you…. safe…Listen to him." The ruckus in the background was making it difficult to make out what Aiko was saying.

"There's still time. I can get to the laboratory and get us all out." His voice was hardened with resolution.

"No!" Aiko almost yelled into the phone. "You need to get back onto the road, Tadashi. Drive northwards... Not to the concourse. We can fend for ourselves. You _must _take Sara to the safe zone."

"Honey, I can get there. I can get you guys out, you just-" He was desperate to do _anything_ to get them out.

"Listen, Tadashi. You'll be killing yourself and Sara if you come here." Tadashi listened helplessly as Aiko stifled a sob. "Promise me that you will keep her safe…See you soon…I…"

There was a crackle.

"Aiko? Honey?"

The line crackled again at one final attempt to grasp hold onto connection, but soon went dead. Tadashi growled and slammed his fist against the dashboard. There wasn't even enough time to say a proper goodbye. The vehicle shuddered slightly and the radio suddenly sprang to life, but instead of a radioed emergency announcement, it began playing Stevie Wonder's "What a Wonderful World." The sweet melody rang out sickeningly as sirens blared madly and radios bleeped in the background. Tadashi kicked the reverse gear roughly and swerved the car off the pavement, knocking down the lamp behind. No one would notice if it were destroyed anyway. It would simply be an additional prop to the scene outside. As his car sped past, there were people running amok on the streets, smashing glass panes and grabbing whatever their hands could find.

"Call Mama?" Sara asked, trying to take the mobile from the dashboard.

"No. Not now Sara." Tadashi replied curtly, removing the device from her reach. Bad move. The little girl immediately burst into tears. He wanted to give his daughter some form of comfort that she badly needed. After all, the child was barely three and even the whole night scene was beginning to take a toll on his twenty-five year old body.

Sara's sobs soon descended into a frightened scream from the sudden impact of a man as he threw himself against their windscreen.

It startled Tadashi just as much and he swerved into the crowd, breaking only in time to stop the car from going out of control. The man, now on the road, was gripping his head as if something inside him was trying to escape. He convulsed wildly against the ground as his face and neck contorted in an unnatural manner. In a few seconds, he was groping blindly around the ground, his lips flared up to the sides, a grotesque display of canines and saliva.

Instinctively out of shock and fear, Tadashi reversed the car, speeding over the limits until they reached the road leading to the highway up north. In his haste to leave he hadn't brought anything, and it dawned upon Tadashi that now he and Sara were as good as homeless. He berated himself for the hindsight but there was nothing he could do except to continue driving. The road to their apartment was now completely jammed up and there was no way their car could get through the crowd anyway.

Behind them was a surging mass of people running for their lives while plumes of grey smoke and fragment littered the pavements as cars rammed into each other. The road was now pillowing with smoke and the acrid scents filled the air so thickly that it seeped through the windows of their vehicle, causing Sara to cough and wheeze. Tadashi pulled his daughter away from the door with his free hand and slammed down on the door locks.

"Don't go near the windows, Sara –"

As soon as Tadashi spoke there was another scream from behind. That was when he saw them. Silhouetted by the hazy smoke and darkness, they seemed to be making some kind of eerie grand entrance. The group of about fifteen slouched steadily towards the chaotic mob, moaning loudly and audibly as they shambled forth, unaffected and indifferent to the havoc and useless clutter around them.

The little voice beside him let out a small sob and Tadashi stared down at his daughter; it had always stunned Tadashi how he saw Aiko in Sara, especially in those lavender coloured eyes. He drew in a breath before taking Sara's hand in his own and squeezing it.

"I know it's scary, baby girl. But I won't let them hurt you." Tadashi took a final look at the limp bodies dragging themselves through the roads before he stepped on the accelerator, banging roughly past several cars blocking the entrance of the highway. He turned his face away from his daughter, hoping she would not see the tears.

There was no going back now.


	3. Chapter 3

Tadashi pressed the gauze to his side as he attempted to stand up, hauling the supplies with his free hand. His blood splattered across the dirt and he kicked it with his shoe, attempting to cover it up. Leading a group of rogues to the safe zone with a blood trial was probably not the best of ideas. He cursed inwardly- his new pair of converse was ruined. But he couldn't be bothered any longer; he could worry about the rest of the shit on his shoe if he made it back alive first.

His chest tightened as he lurched forth, the pain piercing his side. He let out a mirthless laugh as he helplessly watched his bloody slowly ooze from the tear wound, realizing that he had put himself into some kind of juxtaposition, where he had the capability to be his own saviour or grim reaper.

Tadashi halted at the bridge and scanned his surroundings. No, not good. He couldn't go back on that path in his current state. There were too many cars and they choked up the bridge. The risks of a lone clicker or runner lurking behind the shadows of the vehicles were high. Tadashi had already spotted one- a young child with matted hair strapped tightly onto a car seat.

The scene might have brought back some familiarity if half of the creature's face had not been eaten away by fungal growth. The grimy mass was beginning to creep into the child's left eye, which was being held limply by a rotting muscle at its decaying socket. It must have sensed Tadashi for it was not thrashing wildly against its seat, eyeball swishing back and forth like a pendulum. It was much too grotesque and Tadashi looked away, helplessness washing over him. There were actually two routes across bridge, one was the highway and the other was a wild path by the sides. Wild because it had been barely touched by humans, meaning lower chances of encountering infected. But it included going through harsher terrains.

He let out an exasperated sigh as he trudged forth. The alternate route back would not be any different from this route either; the debris and clutter posed just as much danger as running into the infected. Tadashi was not new to this environment- in fact he had been doing this run for two years and knew the congested terrain inside and out. But now he could not think cohesively and his head was spinning from the rapid loss of blood. His mind now flickered like a weak flame as blood trickled from his wound with each step. He abandoned the gauze in favour of pure pressure from his arm, stuffing the limp cloth into his pocket.

"All this trouble to gather intel." He let out a watery gurgle. His throat was dry and crackly.

"God knows if I'll still be able to remember all that shit."

Barely a few kilometers after, Tadashi began to become delirious, his steps becoming distracted and sloppy. But the thought of dying in the middle of nowhere somehow kept him alive. It would have been a little anti-climatic to die just like that. At least dying in the infected clusters would make him somewhat more of a hero than the bitch who gave up too early.

He stumbled and fell onto the dusty road, choking and wheezing as he did so. His will to carry on was depleting faster by each second but he scrabbled to continue moving. Somewhere behind him came the rustle of dry leaves and the cracking of twigs. Tadashi's body tightened in apprehension as the noise drew closer, followed by the low, unmistakable moans and pattering of feet. The moment he turned around, he saw the first runner. His hands trembled slightly as he fired a shot at it: the gun was meant to be the last resort, and the runner's fifteen other friends coming in from all directions were his consequences.

Tadashi groaned, holding onto his side as he limped out of the clearing and to the nearest car, a silver indium. He tossed his backpack up onto the vehicle and scrambled up, hoping to gain a clearer vantage point. To survive required the skill of thinking ahead of even neuron impulses themselves. Every action required planning and extreme precision. Tadashi drew in a breath and made a head count- there were about 28 of them crowding around the hood of the car and more were streaming in fast. There was no emotional connection involved, no guilt or pain. Only cold, calculated shots aimed at the infected. It wasn't murder. It was pest extermination.

The whole engagement lasted for about ten minutes, but with the pain ebbing in his sides, it felt as though he was fighting a never-ending battle. Soon thick rings of corpses, smoking at the heads, were lined around the Mercedes. He didn't know how many he'd taken out but it was enough to bring him down. Tadashi lay atop the car, panting heavily. He closed his eyes as his hands felt around his sides for the supplies. He brought the backpack close into him and squeezing his chest towards its warmth to dull the pain beating against his abdomen. His supplies were intact, and most importantly, _he _was intact. But the gun was now useless: he was entirely out of ammo. Panic shot through his spine and he slid down the hood of the car painfully. He continued on the dirt path for about another twenty minutes, expecting another hoard, but none came.

Soon the camp was within sight and walking distance. Muffled shouts could be heard and Tadashi unbuckled all his equipment, dumping them unceremoniously on the ground despite protests that he was still "outside the zone". He laughed grimly at their warnings. It wouldn't matter if he died now, he had served his purpose to them in the very least and they could easily take him out if he were to be infected. But now that he was still alive and _retained his cognitive ability,_ he had _the apex _to answer to.

"Where the heck did you come from, Tadashi?"

He grimaced as a man from behind reached out in concern. Dreading the heaviness of bodily contact, Tadashi stumbled past the man, but not before tossing the bag of supplies behind him.

* * *

><p><strong>Apologies for the delayed updates. I hope you will enjoy chapters 2 and 3. As I will be extremely busy with school from this week onwards (A levels year! The joy!), I'll be doing updates of at least 2-3 chapters in a go. This is to make up for the lost time. I really appreciate the viewers who took their time to drop reviewscomments and I hope you guys will continue supporting and sharing this story as it progresses! :) **


	4. Chapter 4

The medic pressed a bandage against Tadashi's wound and immediately he grimaced, but more from the stench of blood and antiseptic that overwhelmed his senses.

"Pretty bad shape. Bad run?" Asked the medic casually.

Tadashi kept silent, slumping back onto his bed.

"Don't turn over on your side, son. It's going to tear the stitches open if you keep doing that."

Much too tired and weakened to complain, Tadashi only let out a grunt, adjusting his body uncomfortably. He placed an arm on his eyes to block out the piercing lights. The stress and insomnia had taken its toll on his body; aches and strains had begun to reveal themselves in different muscles, loosening and tensing some in a completely unnatural fashion. There had never been a proper infirmary unit established in the camp. The medic had left all the necessary first-aid equipment Tadashi needed or would need to tend to my injuries by his bedside.

He had done a good job with the treatment though. Tadashi could feel no inconsistencies in the linings of the bandage when ran his hand across their smooth grooves. _Something Aiko would have done well too, _thought Tadashi.

The encounter with the infected earlier had left a stream of adrenalin behind in his system, and his hands had been trembling non-stop ever since. It had been the same routine for two years, productively spent on hunting and taking the infected down in the most violent of methods, from bludgeoning to strangling them with his bare hands. But what else was there to life? Existence.

As the residual energy in his brain seeped away, his ears were filled with the sounds he could only hear: moans of the forsaken and the wet splatter of bullets as they penetrated a skull. With that, he lay back down on the bed, closing his eyes.

He was so tired of it all.

* * *

><p>It was nightfall when Tadashi woke up.<p>

Light from a dim, flickering lamp replaced the electric ones above. He massaged his throbbing head, which was strained from sleep inertia gently. He sat up with a groan, kicking the frame of the bed as he did so.

"Take it."

An outstretched hand offered Tadashi a cup of water. He tried to turn away but realized he couldn't. She was holding onto his arm with a firm grip.

"Take it." She said again, but with slightly more force. Tadashi received the cup grudgingly, though he was actually grateful for the cool liquid that soothed his parched throat.

"When did you get into the mood for a visit?" He finally asked humorlessly. Tomago shrugged.

"I got you a job."

He reached for the screwdriver next to his bed and lay back down. He began spinning it in his hand, watching it intently as it flipped and landed back into his grip perfectly.

She slapped it out of his hand and Tadashi closed his eyes, sighing. "Dog job. The usual thing." Tomago fumbled with her pocket and passed a crumpled piece of paper to him. "Details."

On the paper was a familiar symbol of a firefly. The symbol of rebels who wanted out of the dictatorial and routine system of zones, those who felt that life was worth more than merely existing, those who felt that they needed to _survive_, to restore the Earth to whatever flourishing point it was in before. It was an idealistic cause that threatened to take away the position of whatever was left of governments, thus the label "rebel". Those found involved with the Fireflies were thrown out of the zones and ties were severed, but in a twisted way they also got what they wanted. Now they would not simply exist, but they had to fight for their survival, competing with the rogues and infected for a place in the world. Tadashi smirked and shook his head. Life offered itself with such paradoxical opportunities.

The paper was a job note, with instructions.

SUBJ. ATTN:

TADASHI H.

TARGET LOCATION:

TOWN MALL

TRANSACTION:

M4A1CARB (x2)

M16A2 5.56x45mm (x2)

GLOCK19 9x19mm (x2)

FOOD RATIONS (TBC)

After reading the note, Tadashi crumpled it up and held it above the flame of the lamp.

"I don't run unless I ask for it."

"Just be grateful that _I got you a job_." Tomago settled herself onto a chair.

Tadashi watched the paper shriveled and char as it lingered in the fire. Soon enough, everything from ash to unsettled scores and unpaid debts blanketed the air. He pulled it out of the lamp when only the whites of the paper were left and leaned back against the bed frame.

"When do I start?"

Tomago sat up straight and looked up at him. Her eyes were so tense they almost seemed to be suppressing some kind of panic. "Now. You _must _go now."

He looked at her exasperatedly. She shook her head.

"No, you… you don't understand." She paused to draw in a breath. "This… It wasn't what it was supposed to be. It's different."

Tadashi was starting to get annoyed.

"Well maybe if you stop being so damn mysterious about it I would actually understand its importance!"

Tomago's body abruptly stiffened and her grip on the chair tightened. "I thought you were all about saving people." She had finally pulled out her triumph card: his Achilles heel. "You lost my sister and my niece." Her eyes narrowed at the mention their names. "Here's your chance to make it up. But now there's a twist to it, that's all."

"Stop that, Tomago." Hissed Tadashi. She knew the sore spot well enough to press onto it, _hard. _"I told you I'd go."

Her expression relaxed slightly at his promise. "I'm coming with you on this one." She finished off, before she stood up to leave.

Tadashi grabbed her arm. "You kidding? We work separately."

His hand tightened as she struggled in his grip. "We _never _meet contacts together. Leiko Miyazaki, you will _not _get implicated in this." He hissed.

Tomago shook his hand off roughly, securing her ponytails as she walked towards the door. "No, I'm not. I'll meet you at the underground opening." Her reply quavered with each word.

Tadashi watched her go. She stumbled unsteadily out of the room, offering a muttered apology as she banged into someone outside-. Fear was easy to sense, especially when it radiated so heavily from one.

"Screw this," he growled, picking up his rucksack and gas mask from the ground.


	5. Chapter 5

The derelict mall stood alone in the darkness, the soft glow of its bright neon signs flickering ever so gently, forming shadows which danced about rocks and growths.

The mall was designed by a famous architect in a minimalist or "neo-hipster" way, as Tomago liked to put it. He had seen enough pictures from Aiko to be able to discern buildings of a similar layout.

Before their relationship soured, Tomago had always wanted to talk to the family of three about how it would all be, dreaming of how life after college. She once brought up something about becoming a stunt driver, a profession which immediately met with Aiko's strong disapproval.

Tadashi wondered if she had ever imagined herself plastered to a wall in an abandoned mall, listening for infected with every step. It was a crazy situation after all, so unbelievable. But crazy never mattered because they thought it wasn't their problem; or rather, they never thought it would become _their_ problem. Everyone was so cooped up with their own dreams that they forgot the real threat lurking outside.

They always did.

Tadashi and Tomago tried to keep to empty spaces as much as possible, avoiding physical contact with any object in their pathways. Finally they reached the stairwell leading to the basement. A burning scent hit Tadashi and corpses littered the ground, the greenish muck still seeping out of their bloated bodies. Fresh kills. His grip on his machete tightened.

Tomago turned to Tadashi. "Can you see anyone?" she whispered.

He shook his head. "No sign."

He signaled Tomago to flank the left while he continued on the right side. Some infected may have been taken out, but the original threat was still there. They had to stay vigilant regardless.

"She's there," Tomago called out, bending down beside a fallen girl. The unmistakable sign of the Firefly was tattooed on her neck, large enough to be seen when exposed, but small enough to be concealed with a shift of the collar. She beckoned Tadashi to her. "I think she's injured."

Their contact lay silently curled up in a fetal position next to a locker on the ground, her face constipated with pain as though she were suffering from a temporary cramp. But Tadashi saw it the second the image registered in his mind.

_Death._

There was a particular quality about dead people. Minute details that may have slipped past the untrained eye, seemingly insignificant on their own. But all the signs were laid out plainly. The loose grip of the gun, relaxed arch of the body… Tadashi gently turned her wrist out: the blunt and blood stained mark of a bite. Infected.

He moved the girl's head over and dapples of red and brown surrounded a hollow in her head, forming a gruesome flaxen halo.

"Shot herself," said Tadashi, but more to himself. "She was only a child."

He stood up and walked back towards the stairwell, disgust and anger rising from within his gut. He had to get out of here quick. He turned around and strode towards the long stretch of lockers against the wall, kicking one with all the ferocity in his legs. It was the same _goddamned, fist-clenching, head tearing_ ferocity he used to bash up those bloody liars, the ones that claimed to be the world's salvation. Both the FEDRA and fireflies were feeding innocent citizens with a truckload of crap from their comfortable hidey-holes, promising to pull them back from the brink, only to abandon them when the shit really got tough.

They were the same, all of them_. Disgusting piglets_ who only wanted to save their own hide.

_Damn it all, the bullshit._

It was only when he almost killed a little political bastard with one of his inventions that he realized the rage was making him an aggressive maniac which could potentially kill him one day if he wasn't careful.

But he relinquished these moments where he let his rage take over, the days where the frustration that made his blood boil and vessels throb with grim exhilaration.

That insatiable hunger and thirst for revenge against the ones who started it all: _infected._

It was for this monster that they kept him alive, despite his insubordination and cold demeanor. It was what kept him alive and it was what people lusted after. His weaponry and robotics were all designed to dish out the most malevolent punishments: lobotomisers, atom-structure degenerators that would literally _melt _the living lights out of those fungal creatures.

He knew they_ loved_ this, and he would use that against them as long as he could. In fact, it would allow him to get away with almost anything.

The grip on his machete tightened and he slowly strode towards Tomago. One stab was all it took and he would be done.

Tomago was not completely blind herself either, and realised what Tadashi was thinking of the moment he began advancing.

But Tomago simply watched him passively. "She sacrificed herself for this, you know."

Tadashi could feel air forcibly gushing out of his apertures as he strained himself to take longer breaths, count to ten and do just everything he knew about calming himself down.

He could not lose it now- he would lose his intel and effectively breach any form of agreement between him and the apex if he let the rage consume him. A complete ending to this unfinished business was required, but he wanted a minimal loss of innocent lives. And then there was that fact she was half of Aiko.

Aiko. Bile rose in his throat with the thought of what he almost did.

He was as good as a murderer now.

He eventually turned around to face Tomago, who was used to waiting out his sudden outbursts. He needed them, in her opinion. "Finished?"

"Yes." He breathed out. Easy. "The contact is cut. The deal is off. Let's go."

"No it isn't."

Tadashi halted. He swore he could feel the heat burning in his ears and palm as Tomago casually tossed a key into his hand.

"Plan B."

* * *

><p>Locker 38 was at the end of the row, hidden nicely behind a few dustbins. Whatever was in there probably wouldn't get out on its own, unless it miraculously sprouted legs.<p>

"You have a lot of explaining to do, _Tomago_." He spat the last three syllables out like it was poison in his mouth.

"I don't think I owe you anything, Hamada." She let out a laugh devoid of any emotion. "After all that you did to me."

As much as Tadashi hated to admit, it unnerved him and to some extent, _saddened_, him that they had reached such a state. When did endearing Gogo become sardonic Tomago?

He twisted the plastic key into the keyhole of 38 and with a mechanical click, the metal door swung open, revealing a dark, black suitcase.

Tadashi heaved it out of the locker, careful not to let it drop. It was heavier than he would admit and he had to struggle for a few moments before he managed to get the thing out of the locker. What the hell was in it anyway? He unzipped it, removing the hard cover of the suitcase.

He slowly stood up as the cover fell open, running his hands through his hair. He paced around the room before turning to Tomago, her face still is stoic as ever.

"_What the hell_ is the meaning of this?"

Inside the suitcase was his personal project: Baymax, a machine whose rays were capable of regenerating protein growth in humans. But he had been so caught up chauffeuring between runs and the apex that he had no time to revisit it. And when Tadashi rebooted the machine, he was only met with the words "SYSTEM FAILURE."

It had hit him like a truck.

_The chip was gone. _

The chip that controlled all the intricacies of his invention was missing.

His eyes fell on the girl properly for the first time. She looked so ordinary. Normal. Not some _scheming_, _manipulative bitch. _

He wanted to kick himself for being so naïve. He should have seen it coming.

"You did know about all of this did you?" He snarled.

"That girl was supposed to take you to the client." She backed away as he gained proximity towards her. "But they wanted leverage in case something happened… to her."

He was now dangerously close and Tomago felt slightly threatened by his overwhelming presence. But she continued holding her stare defiantly, _no_, she would not show any sign of weakness. Time was running out.

"They were afraid you would run—"

She flinched as his fist connected with the wall behind her. A sickening shatter was followed by a wet sensation on her shoulder, and soon her upper garment was stained with red as the man clenched his fist tighter, grinding his wound into the dent formed on the wall.

"_Get off me._" She commanded, though Tadashi could tell she was visibly shaken. The rims of her eyes were reddening, but she still bore her steely gaze.

It was black iris against brown as they silently challenged each other, both not willing to back down. An unfamiliar and dangerous pang of guilt suddenly coursed through Tadashi. _When was the last time we even spoke decently to each other?_ He thought. Leiko was Aiko's sister. He was supposed to _protect_ her.

But here they were, the betrayed and the indignant. He shoved her away roughly, willing the _sickening softness of kinship_ to be rid of his mind.

_Kinship would be the downfall of you, Tadashi bloody Hamada._ He'd let his guard down by letting her access his dorm. For shit's sake, how could he have gone over the fact that she graduated from the exact same college as he did?

He looked down at her disgustedly.

"You had better spit my chip out or I swear I will _rip your damned vocal chords out personally_."

The anger of the wrongly accused surged through Tomago. How dare he look at her as if _she_ were the _pile of shit_? If there were anyone more deserving of the title it would be he. But Tomago was not about to play the sudden matyr and spring him with the rationale behind the whole fiasco.

_No, she was not. _

She was going to watch him shrivel in the humiliation when he realised the importance of the business. Tomago obscurely entertained the idea of him perhaps even, sunken in shame, would do her the favour and rid himself from the world.

She hated him with every fibre in her body. Tomago knew he tried to make things up, but he left out the fact that she did not _want _it. She wanted him gone. If picking the healing scar was what it took, she would do it. She would scab it and rip it off over and over.

She smiled at him in a grotesquely saccharine manner.

"You can't."

Before she could react, his hand was pinned against her windpipe, causing her to choke and gag.

"You have NO idea how much damage Baymax can deal." His voice had dropped a notch.

"I... C…Can't…Unless…" She kicked at his injured spot, sending him reeling backwards with a painful gasp. She coughed and hacked violently. "Y…You have to meet the client. But there's more."

Tadashi bit back harsh words. _Obviously_ it took someone with great knowledge to know that was not all.

"Do whatever they tell you to do. No questions."

Tadashi fought back the urge to kill her right there and then. But now that the Fireflies had the chip with them, he was powerless. He had to get it back. If Baymax were complete, Tadashi would have ensured it was on lockdown security. But the fact that Baymax was only a high-functioning prototype was what tied him down completely to the Fireflies.

Because prototypes were still prototypes.

And prototypes were about as stable as malfunctioning robots.

He had to take his bloody hat off to Leiko Miyazaki.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Baymax is featured as a machine in the story, as this is more of an exploration of Tadashi's relationship with the other characters. Thank you for the patience and also thank you to the reviewers/favourites/follows! It's really heartening to know that there are people interested and reading my story. Please do continue to R&R! **


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